Milpitas native's story explored in Cinequest film

by Aliyah Mohammed, Milpitas Post

Posted:
03/14/2014 04:55:07 PM PDT

Updated:
03/14/2014 04:58:24 PM PDT

When Milpitas native Jennifer (Wardley) Canvasser first watched the documentary "The Human Experiment" at its premiere last year at the Mill Valley Film Festival, she was entranced and emotional as the story of her late son Micah was depicted on the big screen.

Micah, who passed away at 11 months of age in December 2012 from necrotizing enterocolitis, an infection in the bowel that is common in premature babies, is one part of the documentary about the effect of chemicals in everyday products and the environment on people. The documentary, narrated and executive produced by Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn, is dedicated to Micah.

Written and directed by award winning journalists Dana Nachman and Don Hardy and produced by Chelsea Matter, "The Human Experiment" explores the potential dangers of toxic chemicals in consumer products and the recent spike in unexplained health phenomena. It has been screened all over the world. The 78-minute film will be screened for a second time locally as part of the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose on Saturday, March 15 at 2:45 p.m. at the California Theatre.

"The first time we saw it was at the world premiere in October," Canvasser said. "It was really beautiful, it was hard to watch some of it, really emotionally difficult to watch, but it raises awareness about the impact of chemicals on human health and it is a beautiful film.

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For me personally it was really emotional, but it was pretty neat to see Micah's face on the big screen."

Micah and his twin brother Zachary were born 90 days early Jan. 23, 2012 at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, where Canvasser lives with her husband Noah. The boys weighed 2 pounds, 7 ounces and 2 pounds, 12 ounces, respectively.

They were both incubated as soon as they were born and lived separated from their parents for the first three months. Zachary went home in April 2012, but Micah had to stay behind in the neonatal intensive care unit because he had developed necrotizing enterocolitis.

When his kidneys failed, he was put on continuous renal replacement therapy from April 20 through July 31, 2012, which meant he was hooked up to a machine around the clock. When he later caught pneumonia, causing his organs to fail, Canvasser and her husband were faced with the decision to keep him on renal replacement therapy to keep him alive, or say goodbye.

The Canvassers' involvement with the documentary began even before Micah and Zachary were conceived, back when they were struggling with infertility. A support group introduced them to the film crew, and most of the filming was completed by the time Micah and Zachary were born.

The effect of chemicals and toxins is something that has always concerned Canvasser, who works in the environmental health nonprofit sector.

"As we were going through our infertility journey, it was something that concerned us, and afterward we were worried that the chemicals around might hurt him," she said.

"The film talks about the concerns that we had about the chemicals that were in the medical supplies and equipment, but we didn't have a choice about using them; Micah needed them to live."

Zachary is also featured in the film. He just turned 2 years old and is completely healthy, according to Canvasser, who is back in Milpitas for the Cinequest film screenings.

Canvasser, who has started the nonprofit NEC society to raise awareness about necrotizing enterocolitis to help protect premature babies, is concerned about flame retardants in furniture and plasticizing chemicals that are common in plastics.

"There are lot of chemicals we come into contact with every day that can impact human health," she said.

More information about Canvasser's organization can be found at her website, necsociety.org. Information about the Cinequest screening can be found at cinequest.org.

Contact Aliyah Mohammed at amohammed@themilpitaspost.com or 408-262-2454. Visit us on our social media sites at facebook.com/milpitaspost and twitter.com/milpitaspost.